Hey
yo! It is a sad day in wrestling. Watching ECW, I realized it was true;
Kurt Angle was really released from his contract. Heís done with the
WWE and most likely, he is done with wrestling. I wanted to believe it
was some kind of angle, but it appears to be true. Wrestling just got less
interesting.

I remember when I first watched
Kurt Angleshow up in the
WWE. I was an even bigger fanatic of wrestling then and I didnít even
have cable television. I would always watch it at someone elseís house and one
day, it was a Sunday, I saw Tiger Ali Singh invite
Kurt Anglein the ring. Playing off his Olympic gold medal
status, they tried to offer him money to disrespect America, but he
refused and looked like a hero to the crowd.

I didnít like him. He looked
like a total throwback to the 80ís. I thought we were going to get an over the
top good guy who told us to eat our vitamins
and say our prayers. Instead, the
WWE sensed that the fans would hate him right away, but grow to love him
and rather than make a mistake like they did with the Rock, they went
with
KurtAngle being a heel right away, right down to the boring match with
Shawn Stasiak that prompted the crowd to chant boring and led
Angle to denounce them in the middle of the match, showcasing great mic
skills that would become his trademark.

What the fans hated more was
his three Iís lecture of intensity, integrity and intelligence. It was like
Angle was the anti-Hogan,
made even more clear when he parodied Steve Austinísbeer truck
scene with a milk truck, leading JR to
scream out Milk-A-Mania is running wild. Anyways,
Angle played the pompous jackass to a tee, but he could wrestle better
than anyone and went on an undefeated streak that just pissed off fans who just
wanted him to suffer his first loss already.

Even HHH wanted that to happen, jealous that his wife Stephanie seemed
to have a little crush on him. This was the first sign that
Angle was being groomed to be a main event level player. The mini-feud
never materialized until much later, but the roots of which began during his
debut and fans started to take notice.

Even after losing his
undefeated streak to Tazz,
Angle remained a force in the
WWE and would win the European title and then the IC title, hold
them both at the same time. And the fans were actually starting to cheer a
bit.
Angle would lose both titles at Wrestlemania in a great
match involving Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, which was a
prelude of things to come for Benoit and
Angle. Losing both titles,
Angle still moved up in the ranks, feuding with The Undertaker, winning the King of the Ring and then
feuding with
HHH and The Rock over the World title at Summerslam,
the first wrestler to truly break the glass ceiling in the
WWE that had The Rock,
HHH,
Steve Austin and
The Undertaker on top and everyone else looking for a way in.

Angle would suffer a
concussion
in the match and come back for the
finish, the first sign of the guts he had that eventually led
to his wrestling demise. But at this point,
Angle was hot. He would win the world title and soon add an ankle lock
and start developing a mean streak.

Angle would flip back and forth between comedy, dangerous heel and all
around good guy and no matter what role he played, outside of one as the
Smackdown GM (Damn, Teddy Long has been GM for awhile), he
performed it so well, he made you forget his other antics. And he could
wrestle. He was good on the mic, he was great in any role and he could
wrestle. I sincerely believe that
Angleis the best all around wrestler to ever step foot in the ring.
You love
HHH, but can he wrestle like
Angle? You love Benoit, but can he talk like
Angle? You see my point?

Anglecould have a great match with just about anyone. It is easy to
have a good match with Chris Benoit. Wrestlemania classic with HBK Ė thatís to be expected. You
have your obvious great matches with Edge, too. Eddie Guerrero is a great wrestler himself and the two had a great
match.

But remember Summerslam
when
Anglewrestled Rey Mysteriofor the first time? Rey Mysterio
could hang with the big guys, but no one knew it because of the way he was
treated in WCW, but
Anglehelped make Mysterio a star.

Remember King of the Ring,
when he beat Christian, lost to Edge and still fought one more
grueling match with
Shane McMahon that absolutely stole the show. McMahon had good matches in the past, but he is not a trained star and
their match was gold.

Angleeven made the Big Show look good. And we all know how great a
showman
Undertaker is, but
Angle and
Undertaker had a mat classic that really surprised everyone and now any
type of feud between the two would be a selling point for the next
Wrestlemania, but alas that may never be.

I think the only wrestler
Angle did not have a good match with was Mark Henry, but who
could. The guy tears his quads just standing up. But I will never forget the
feud with Brock Lesnar. Wow. It so sucks that Lesnar never
stayed, because that feud would have only got better if Lesnar grew as a
wrestler.

And
Angle captured every title alive;
WWE World Title,
WCW World Title, US title, IC title, European title, World
Tag-Team title (what a team he had with Chris Benoit) and the King
of the Ring. It was a damn shame that they never gave him the
ECW title. In such a short amount of time,
Angle accomplished it all and it is just a true shame not to see him in
the ring. I hope whatever he is going through gets dealt with. I hope his
injuries heal and I hope that maybe in a year or even two years,
Angle comes back and gives us one or two more great years of wrestling
with a new crop of stars.

But with
Angle gone,
ECW needs a similar type wrestler. I nominate
Angle. He canít carry Raw or Smackdown, but
can you imagine Benoit vs.RVD or Benoit vs.CM Punk, but even
better, can you imagine Benoit fighting the guy that actually led to
Benoit earning the crippler status, Sabu! I would love to see
Benoit replace
Angle in
ECW, but when it comes down to it, I donít think anyone can replace
Angle in that ring.

But with the way wrestlers have
left wrestling in recent years, I am happy
Angle is okÖhe can fix his life and then, hopefully then, come back
better than ever before.